Xinhua reported that the Chinese government recently started a three-year program for a national park system and selected nine areas in various parts of the country, according to a June 8 National Development and Reform Commission announcement.

The pilot areas are Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces in the Northeast, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces in the East and Southeast, Hubei and Hunan in Central China, Yunnan in the South, and Qinghai in the West, as well as the capital, Beijing.

The program is the work of the central government and the Paulson Institute, a non-government organization founded by Hank Paulson, a former US treasury secretary, in 2011.

The institute statement says that it promotes environmental preservation and investment in China and the US and the agreement calls for it to help with the management of China’s nature reserves, forests, and world heritage sites.